Infection causes man to brew beer in his stomach

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A 61-year-old man stumbled into a Texas emergency room complaining of dizziness and was found to have a blood alcohol concentration of 0.37 percent, almost five times the legal limit for driving in Texas.

The story doesn’t sound too bizarre, except the man said he hadn't consumed a drop of alcohol that day.

It turns out brewer's yeast in the man’s gut caused his intestinal tract to act like an internal brewery.

NPR reports the patient was infected with Saccharomyces cerevisiae, so when he consumed starchy foods or drinks the yeast fermented the sugars into ethanol, causing him to become intoxicated. Essentially, he was brewing beer in his own gut, writes reporter Michaeleen Doucleff.